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Digital culture and communications

Social Media PRs Share and Share A-Like?

In a conversation at last week’s London Blogger’s Meetup with a fellow social media PR type, we were discussing one of his campaigns and the sort of tactics that his agency had employed. This set me thinking.

I don’t know of any other sector of the PR industry, where discussions of ideas, plans and executed campaigns are shared so freely. I can’t imagine the guys who run the Coca-Cola corporate strategy, sharing their plans with the Pepsi corporate team for example.

Is it because social media PRs are happier to talk and share in order to help fellow professionals and develop this growing and vibrant industry sector? Or is it because they/we want to show off how well we’re doing with the new tools afforded to us by technology, and to covertly rub our industry-mates’ noses in the dirt?

I am not entirely sure to be completely honest with you.

The PR with whom I was talking was quite happily telling me what their execution strategy for one of their clients was – I am being cynical if I were to suggest that this was purely being done in order to shellshock me, a younger and less experienced PR (nearly two years, oh yes), into trying to put them on a pedestal as a leading light?

Was the PR trying to genuinely encourage and provide me with something to aspire to, by telling me a tale of success?

Nope, still can’t decide.

What did strike me was the number of PRs who are happy to talk to other PRs about this, no longer the ‘Oh, there’s such and such from whoever’s agency, let’s stay clear of them’ of yesteryear. Maybe it’s because an increasing amount of PRs doing digital are younger and not struck by the prejudices of the ‘old way’, and are happy to converse with each other.

What are your thoughts? Was I inadvertently taking part in a ‘my strategy is bigger and better than your strategy’ conversation, or a ‘this was cool, see if you can run with it’ copnversation – help me to work it out!